Content like movies, songs, podcasts, or electronic books may be available in different formats and versions. For example, a movie may be available with aspect ratios of 16:9 or 4:3. Additionally, a movie may be available in a standard edition, a director's cut, or an extended edition. A movie may also be available in a G rated version, a PG rated version, and an R rated version. A movie may also be available for VHS (Video Home System), Beta (Betamax), DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), Blu-ray, or other apparatus. A movie may also be available in different regional versions where product placement is customized to different regions, countries, cultures, or languages.
Consumers may not like buying the same content over and over. Consider a consumer who has a favorite movie (e.g., Pride and Prejudice). Over the years the consumer may have purchased a VHS version, then a DVD version, then a Blu-ray version, and then a downloadable version. Additionally, as the movie was re-mastered the consumer may have purchased the re-mastered version(s). Furthermore, to insure that the consumer had all the content, the consumer may have purchased special releases that included new or altered content. While some consumers may engage in this type of purchasing behavior, other consumers may delay or forego making purchases if they consider it likely that the content may become “stale” or even “obsolete” in a certain time frame. For example, if a consumer knows that a new type of movie viewer is about to be released, the consumer may delay a purchase until after the new type of movie viewer is available.
Packaging many different but related streams together has not been a viable option for distributing all permutations of an instance of content. Additionally, packaging multiple existing streams together cannot possibly account for streams that have not yet been produced. Conventional licensing models for digital content distribution involves having consumers pay anew for the same master content after it has been modified in some way (e.g., re-mastered, higher resolution, additional scenes, formatted for new device). Conventional licensing models may dis-incentivize consumers to acquire what may be perceived as incremental improvements to content.